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American Airlines is releasing a ton of Business Class award space from Los Angeles and Chicago to Shanghai for most of 2016.

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This award space is easy to connect to from anywhere in the United States, and you can connect elsewhere in Asia with American Airlines partners. These connecting flights do not add to the Business Class mileage price of 55,000 American Airlines miles each way. Business Class awards go up in price to 70,000 American Airlines miles one way on March 22, 2016, but you can lock in your Spring, Summer, or Fall vacation now at the current price. United and Delta charge 70,000 to 80,000 miles for a Business Class award.

Some credit card offers in this post have expired, but they might come back. If they do they will appear –> Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

For a limited time, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® MasterCard® and CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World MasterCard® are each offering 50,000 bonus American Airlines miles after $3,000 in purchases made with your card in the first 3 months the account is open. Don’t be thrown off by the word “Platinum.” Both cards have no annual fee the first 12 months, and then $95.

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Get both cards and meet the $6,000 total spending requirement to have over 106,000 American Airlines miles. That’s only 4,000 miles short of a roundtrip in Business Class to China or Southeast Asia.

Product

The Chicago flights fly old 777s that feature angled beds in Business Class.

You really want to fly the Los Angeles route, flown by a 787 Dreamliner, which features fully flat beds that all have aisle access.

Award Space

Award space is good from Los Angeles to Shanghai, starting in April and continiuing through December 2016.

These calendars are for two award seats.

Screen Shot 2016-01-13 at 6.53.02 PMScreen Shot 2016-01-13 at 6.53.27 PMAward space from Shanghai to Los Angeles gets good in August and runs through December.Screen Shot 2016-01-13 at 6.57.16 PMScreen Shot 2016-01-13 at 6.59.32 PM

Award space is much better on the Chicago to Shanghai route, but as I noted the product is far inferior.

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Connections

If you don’t live in Chicago or Los Angeles, you can still take advantage of this space. Those are two huge hubs for American Airlines with flights to most of the country. You can tack on Economy, Business, or First Class MileSAAver award space onto these international flights for zero extra miles.

If you don’t want to go to Shanghai, or you want to fly an open jaw award, this space is still useful. American Airlines partners with flights from Shanghai that you can add for zero extra miles:

  • Cathay Pacific/Dragonair (Hong Kong)
  • Malaysia Airlines (Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu)

Visa

For Americans, going to China requires a visa unless you transit between two countries for less than 72 hours like I did in 2014. This transit visa would not work for a roundtrip booking, but it would work if you booked this award space one way, then flew from Shanghai to a third country, and returned to the United States from there.

Booking the Award

If your award contains only partners that are searchable at aa.com, you can book right on aa.com.

If your award contains other partners like Cathay Pacific or Malaysia Airlines, you must call 800-882-8880 to book the award. The phone fee should be waived, since you couldn’t book online, and make sure that it is.

Pay the taxes with your Citi Prestige® Card.

The Citi Prestige® Card offers a $250 Air Travel Credit each calendar year that offsets your first $250 in spending on airlines with the card. Taxes on an award ticket definitely count.

The card also comes with 50,000 bonus ThankYou Points after spending $3,000 in the first three months, which can be transferred to 12 types of airline miles or used like cash toward the purchase of any ticket.

Getting the Miles

Some credit card offers in this post have expired, but they might come back. If they do they will appear –> Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

For a limited time, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® MasterCard® and CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World MasterCard® are each offering 50,000 bonus American Airlines miles after $3,000 in purchases made with your card in the first 3 months the account is open. Don’t be thrown off by the word “Platinum.” Both cards have no annual fee the first 12 months, and then $95.

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Get both cards and meet the $6,000 total spending requirement to have over 106,000 American Airlines miles. That would be almost enough to book two one ways in Business Class between the United States and China or Southeast Asia.

Bottom Line

Book your Spring, Summer, or Fall 2016 trip to Shanghai or anywhere else in Asia with fantastic flat bed award space in American Airlines Business Class.

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.

With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!


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